Washington (AFP) — Two U.S. aircraft on Friday bombed Islamic State extremist positions in northern Iraq after artillery fire near U.S. personnel, the Pentagon said. The raid — the most significant since the United States withdrew from Iraq — came a day after President Barack Obama authorized force as he voiced fears of genocide against […]

By Mitchell Prothero, McClatchy Foreign Staff KALAK, Iraq — Kurdish fighters scrambled to set up a defensive line Thursday after militants from the Islamic State seized four strategic towns on a key highway and advanced to positions just minutes from Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Hundreds of Kurdish peshmerga militiamen built earthen […]

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times BEIRUT — A breakaway al-Qaida group that already holds sway in large swaths of Iraq and Syria made new territorial gains Thursday in northern Iraq, reportedly overrunning a major Christian town and seizing the nation’s largest dam. The fresh advances by the Islamic State and its allies have […]

By Patrick J. Mcdonnell, Los Angeles Times The U.N. is warning of a humanitarian “tragedy” in Iraq as thousands flee advances by Islamist militants. The United Nations is warning of a humanitarian “tragedy,” saying hundreds of thousands of civilians are fleeing the latest advances by Islamist militants in northern Iraq. In recent days, fighters of […]

August 4, 2014

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